Kristen Reinberger: Christmas celebration followed pagan holiday

Posted: Friday, December 16, 2005

I hope Phoebe Whiddon (Letters, "'Happy holidays' is un-American greeting," Dec. 13) doesn't mind working on Sundays, because she'll have to if she promises not to take days off on pagan days. Sunday is historically a day of sun worship which pagans have celebrated for thousands of years. All the other days of the week are named for Norse pagan gods as well.

The day of Christmas, Dec. 25, is a pagan holiday too, and it was before the birth of Jesus. It was known as the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "birthday of the invincible sun," and was the birthday of the god Mithras. Mithras was born of a virgin in a cave on Dec. 25 and was worshiped on Sunday. He died and was resurrected to become the god of light. The early church adopted this day to counter Mithraism, a competing religion at the time.

Moreover, how can "happy holidays" be "un-American" or "un-Christian," if the word itself means "holy" days?